Tag Archives: FISA

Episode 203: Interview with Glenn Gerstell This episode consists of Jamil Jaffer and I interviewing Glenn Gerstell, the General Counsel of the National Security Agency. Glenn explains what it was like on the inside of the effort to reauthorize section 702 of FISA. Jamil and I ask him whether the FISA court has the authority to deal… Continue Reading

Episode 199: Untold stories of the 702 reauthorization In this guestless episode, Michael Vatis, Markham Erickson, and Nick Weaver join me to roundup the news. I explore the final results of the intense jockeying that led to passage of S. 139, which gave section 702 of FISA a new lease on life. The administration did well, weathering… Continue Reading

Episode 194: Mass Bioterrorism, Runaway Artificial Intelligence, and Other Romps with Rob Reid Our interview this week is with Rob Reid, author of After On and Year Zero, two books that manage to translate serious technology nightmares into science fiction romps. We cover a lot of ground: synbio and giving eighth graders the tools for… Continue Reading

Episode 190: Interview with United States Senator Sheldon Whitehouse In our 190th episode Stewart Baker has a chance to interview United States Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) has a long history of engagement with technology and security issues. In this episode, we spend a remarkably detailed half-hour with him, covering the cybersecurity waterfront, from the FBI’s… Continue Reading

Episode 188: Putting the “F” in FISA: Bipartisan Extremism and the Road to 1997 In this episode, Brian Egan and I deconstruct the endlessly proliferating “FISA 702 Reform” bills, from the irresponsible House Judiciary bill to the “I’ll see your irresponsible and raise you crazy” bipartisan extremist bill beloved of Sens. Wyden and Paul (and talk… Continue Reading

Episode 186: What Stephen Paddock Can Tell Us About 702 Reform Our interview is another in our series on section 702 reform, featuring Mieke Eoyang of the National Security Program at Third Way and Jamil Jaffer of George Mason University and IronNet Security. They begin with the history of the program but quickly focus on proposals… Continue Reading

Episode 178: The Evil Dolphin Episode The Cyberlaw Podcast kicks off a series exploring section 702 – the half-US/half-foreign collection program that has proven effective against terrorists while also proving controversial with civil liberties groups. With the program due to expire on December 31, we’ll examine the surveillance controversies spawned by the program. Today, we… Continue Reading

Episode 164: Stewart on the Road to Tarsus Episode 164 features Stewart Baker’s startling change of heart on the question of cyberspace norms. Credit goes to our interview guest, Tim Maurer, Fellow and co-director of the Cyber Policy Initiative at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. And perhaps as well to Brian Egan, former Legal… Continue Reading

Episode 118 digs deep into DARPA’s cybersecurity research program with our guest, Angelos Keromytis, associate professor at Columbia and Program Manager for the Information Innovation Office at DARPA. Angelos paints a rich picture of a future in which we automate attribution across networks and international boundaries and then fuse bits of attribution data as though… Continue Reading

Does the FISA court perform a recognizably judicial function when it reviews 702 minimization procedures for compliance with the fourth amendment? Our guest for episode 115 is Orin Kerr, GWU professor and all-round computer crime guru, and Orin and I spend a good part of the interview puzzling over Congress’s mandate that the FISA court… Continue Reading

Our guest for episode 114 is General Michael Hayden, former director of the NSA and CIA; he also confirms that he personally wrote every word of his fine book, Playing to the Edge: American Intelligence in the Age of Terror. In a sweeping interview, we cover everything from Jim Comey’s performance at the AG’s hospital… Continue Reading

No holds are barred as a freewheeling panel of cryptographers and security pros duke it out with me and the Justice Department over going dark, exceptional access, and the Apple-FBI conflict. Among the combatants: Patrick Henry, a notable cryptographer with experience at GCHQ, NSA, and the private sector; Dan Kaminsky, the Chief Scientist at White Ops;… Continue Reading

Our guest for episode 90 is Charlie Savage, New York Times reporter, talking about Power Wars, his monumental new book on the law and politics of terrorism in the Obama (and Bush) administrations. I pronounce it superb, deeply informative, and fairly unbiased, “for a New York Times reporter.” With that, the fat is in the… Continue Reading

Our guest this week is Joanne McNabb, Director of Privacy Education and Policy for the California Attorney General’s Office. Joanne discusses the findings and recommendations in the recently released 2014 California Data Breach Report. She also offers insight into some of the key factors the Attorney General’s Office considers in deciding whether or not to… Continue Reading

Our guest this week is Robert (Bob) Litt, the General Counsel of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Bob has had a distinguished career in government, from his clerkship with Justice Stewart, his time as a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York and at Main Justice, and more than five years… Continue Reading

Our guest for the podcast is Shaun Waterman, editor of POLITICO Pro Cybersecurity. Shaun is an award-winning journalist who has worked for the BBC and United Press International; and an expert on counterterrorism and cybersecurity. We begin as usual with the week’s NSA news. NSA has released its second privacy transparency report. We’ve invited Becky… Continue Reading

The Steptoe Cyberlaw Podcast is on hiatus in August, but we’ve brought it back for a special appearance – a debate over Senator Leahy’s version of the USA Freedom Act sponsored by the Federalist Society. Moderated by Christian Corrigan, the debate pitted me against Harley Geiger, Senior Counsel and Deputy Director for the Freedom, Security… Continue Reading

That’s the possibility raised by Edward Jay Epstein in a (paywalled) Wall Street Journal op-ed. Epstein offers some new evidence for his theory. In particular he says that NSA investigators now know that Snowden’s tactics included breaking into two dozen compartments using forged or stolen passwords. Once there, Snowden loosed an automated “spider” with instructions… Continue Reading

I’d like to offer readers a short quiz on judicial independence. Imagine a field where liability is common but damages vary widely — patent law, perhaps, or disability claims. In this field, there is a specialized court that has attracted Congressional and press criticism because it rules for the plaintiff 99% of the time. Stung… Continue Reading

Stewart Baker

Stewart served as the first Assistant Secretary for Policy at the Department of Homeland Security where he set cybersecurity policy, including inward investment reviews focused on network security. More

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